


Pandora's Box

by Noctuarie



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Gen, Pandora's Vault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-19 09:29:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29624211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noctuarie/pseuds/Noctuarie
Summary: Tommy just wanted to have closure. But before he can move on from his past with Dream, he is forced to face one last challenge. Survive a week with Dream, alone, in a prison designed to be impenetrable. Tommy is quick to panic, but there's no where for him to run to, only time to waste. A week is a terribly long time.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 55





	Pandora's Box

**Author's Note:**

> Based off Tommy's stream today. I wrote this pretty quick, so I apologize for any errors. Enjoy!

This wasn't fair. Was seeking closure such a sin?

The lava flowed down in front of him. Heat radiated off of it like an oven, almost too much for him to stand. But he couldn't move away. This was the farthest he could get from his new roommate, and he loathed the idea of giving up any distance. 

"It's just like exile," he heard Dream speak from the corner of the cell, digging up the last of the books to stash away before Tommy tried to burn them. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Tommy glanced over his shoulder. "Fuck you. Fuck this whole place, and whatever plan you've created! Just get me out of here," he said, his hands clenching into fists.

Dream snorted, shaking his head. "Tommy, come on now. I've been here this whole time! I didn't do anything." He closed the chest, satisfied with the books he had collected. He stood up, stretching his arms and letting out a yawn. "I know as much as you do."

"You're lying to me!" Tommy spun around, pointing a finger at him. "This whole thing, it's all your fault. Everything is always your fault." He gritted his teeth, struggling to come up with a way to get out his feelings that wasn't strangling Dream right then and there. "So you better get me out of this or- or else." 

Dream frowned, taking a few steps towards Tommy. He walked across the crying obsidian, the gentle sounds of the tears hitting the floor echoing his footsteps. "I only know one thing, and that's the protocol that I wrote. At most, you'll be stuck here for a week. Just the two of us, just like old times." 

Tommy's eyes went wide, a feral kind of fear like that of prey that had no where left to run. "Sam. Sam, let me out of here!" 

"No one can hear you," Dream pointed towards the ceiling. "Sam's gone to go check out whatever... breach just occurred." His hands fell back to his sides as he shrugged.

Tommy glanced around, the fluttering of his heart urging him to find an escape. But there was nothing but the obsidian walls to comfort him, and the constant heat of the lava. Sam didn't respond to his frightened yells. 

"You know, I think this could be good for us. We can grow close again. Be friends again." Dream smiled, his teeth glinting in the light from the lava. He reached into the pockets of his uniform, digging around for a moment. 

Tommy's gaze focused on the movement, and he backed up, inching closer to the lava. "Phil! Phil help me!" 

Dream paused, his eyebrows furrowing. "You're calling for Phil?" He let out a laugh, a hollow sound that echoed back in the empty space. "I've done more for you than he has. I don't know why you'd ever go to him for help." He pulled his hands out of his pockets, "here, I promise I'm not out to kill you." He reached out to Tommy, a potato in his hand. "You'll need to eat if you're staying here."

Slowly, Tommy stepped forward and reached his hand out to grab the food. He snatched it from Dream, retreating a few steps afterwards. He stared at it, blinking back tears that had started to form. In truth, he wasn't certain why he had called out to Phil. It was instinctual, like a child calling for their mother when they got lost in the supermarket. But he wasn't in a supermarket. He was in a prison. Alone with the one person who still haunted him in his nightmares. Maybe, just maybe, some part of him hoped that Phil would swoop in and save the day, just as Phil had come in to try and save the day before Wilbur- Tommy shook his head. Reminiscing like this would surely make things worse. "I thought you'd kill me, not feed me."

Dream started to eat a potato himself, munching away before he spoke. "I think I've made it plenty clear that I've never wanted you dead. If you think that still, well, you're more stupid than I thought you were."

Tommy flinched, as if the words had physically hit him. There was no reason he should even care about what Dream had to say. Dream was worth nothing. He held no power anymore. "Things have changed since we last... talked about that," Tommy fidgeted with the potato, twisting it in his hands. If thinking of Phil wasn't enough, his thoughts kept drifting back to Techno. If he had never defended L'Manburg, if he had stayed with the anarchist... he wouldn't be stuck here. In a world that felt like a lifetime away, Techno had even protected him from Dream. He doubted Techno would help him now. He was just another person Tommy had pushed away, incidentally or otherwise. "I thought your time in prison might change your opinion of me."

Dream's smile returned, although it looked a bit stiff. "Tommy, my opinion of you could never change. You and I both know how important you are. It doesn't matter how much time passes, you'll always be their shining ray of hope." 

Tommy took a bite of the potato, chewing it slowly as he stared at Dream, looking him up and down. "Once I get out of here, I'll never see you again. I'm never going to visit you, and you'll never get to use your fucked up mind tricks again. I shouldn't have to visit you, or think of you, ever again."

Another explosion boomed, the noise causing tommy to jump. The potato fell from his grasp, rolling across the floor towards the lava. "Shit," he said, looking up towards the ceiling. He was ready for it to cave in any moment now, for Dream to slip out of his grasp and head to his new hotel, and tear it apart block by block just like everything else he had made in the past. "God, what's going on?"

"I told you I don't know," Dream said, stuffing the half-eaten potato back in his pocket. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"They have to let me out," Tommy said, looking back to the lava. "Sam! Sam please, my visit is over!"

"How many times do I have to tell you? No one is coming. Go on, yell, plead, scream until your throat is hoarse. It doesn't matter." Dream stepped up next to him, looking at the lava. He kicked the potato, watching as it fell into the lava with a sizzle. 

"Help! Anyone!" Tommy cupped his hands around his mouth, desperate for his calls to reach someone who could save him from this isolation. "I can't stay in here with this freak!" 

Another explosion reached them, and Dream let out a soft sigh. "It's such a coincidence, isn't it? Like the fates aligned to make sure you were stuck in here with me. Just so we could have some time to talk when you have no where else to go." He rolled up the sleeves of his uniform, the heat from the lava getting to him. 

"No, fuck you!" Tommy turned to him, his eyes ablaze with anger. "I won't stay here. I will get out!"

Dream didn't flinch, barely giving more than a roll of his eyes at Tommy's rightful fury. It was like dealing with a child's sudden outburst, and it was starting to grate on his nerves. He turned to Tommy, looking down at the boy who had done so much, and yet had so little to show for it. "Tommy, I don't think you understand. If someone is trying to break in, the problem has to be dealt with. You are not the top priority, in fact, you signed waivers saying as much."

"You don't know anything!" Tommy yelled. He shoved his hands out, pushing Dream back a few steps. "You're a fucking villain. You lost everything, because you wanted power more than you wanted anything else. You're the biggest failure and the worst person this server has ever seen. You have no right to tell me anything anymore! They'll come get me. Because unlike you, they actually care about people." 

The smile was wiped from Dream's face. He stared, a fury suddenly brewing within him, almost equal to the rage that Tommy possessed. Before Tommy could do anything, Dream lashed out, grabbing Tommy's shirt collar and shoving him back so that the lava was at Tommy's back, less than an inch between him and the lava. The searing heat burned at the back of Tommy's shirt, his body frozen at the precipice of disaster. "I have been here since the start of this server. Everything that has been created- none of it would be possible without me. I made this place with the people that I cared about most. But you, you and Wilbur had to come in and destroy everything we had built! Everything was perfect until you came along to ruin it. You have no right to call me the villain, I had good reasons for everything I did. I wanted to build a family, I wanted us to stay united. You, on the other hand? You tore everyone apart. There's a reason you're at the center of every conflict, because you're the cause of these problems. Not me. Even with me in prison, things are still falling apart. If I had been in charge, if you had just lived with what I had provided, everything would have been fine! So tell me, Tommy, how do you justify your actions? How do you justify using Techno and his resources before fighting against him? How do you justify placing the discs before the life of your best friend? How do you justify creating a country that killed Wilbur?"

Silence greeted Dream's words.

Tommy could barely keep himself standing, his breaths coming in short shallow gasps. He couldn't stop the tears now, and they rushed down his cheeks, as hot as the lava at his back. 

Dream pulled him back from the lava, shoving him towards the wall of obsidian. "I'm sure Techno told you plenty of mythological stories when you stayed with him. My favorite has always been the story of Pandora's box. For when all the evils of the world were let out, one thing stayed in the box. Do you know what never made it out of that box?" 

Tommy leaned against the wall, sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor. He pulled his knees up close to his chest. Now that the tears had started, it was impossible to get them to stop. Dream had broken the dam, bringing back the many incidents he had tried so hard to forget. "Hope," he said through his tears, his mind flashing back to the day when Techno had told him the story. "Hope never made it out of the box."

Dream smiled. "Exactly. Hope will never make it out." He cleared his throat, straightening his back as he regained his composure. "We have a long week ahead of us, Tommy. I think we're going to have a lot of fun together."


End file.
